The Dallas daily herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1887, 1887-04-13
SHAM NAVAL. FIGHTS.


The New York. Herald, says: Within
the next ten days fleet. exercises, SINH
lar to those of last year, are to take
place of this port. The larger part OF
the maneuvering squadron will block
ade the entrance to Toulon. while two
or three Of the fastest cruisers will wait
in the harbor to make u dash seward
in case the torpedo boat, Flotilla, sue
cccdS "a raising The blockade. This is
Almost repetition OF the sham battles
Ct n year ago. when the alleged success
Of The torpedo boats gave so much dis
satisfaction to the officers of the crus-
ing fleet.
Never will / admit that my ship was
cached by torpedo boat" said n
French commanding officer to The Her.
ald correspondent at the close of the
heet exercises last May, and this opn-
ion was echoed by other captdineS dc
uaiSsedu who took part in that memora-
II lie experiment.
The board of umpires, it was strong
ly suspected, were inclined to decide
that the torpedo craft had been sue
cessful in raising the blockade main
lained by nine or ten armored ships.
lnasmuch as the captains excitement
was something more than might have
been expected from the mere chagrn
at defeat in n mock combat, rs he was
asked why he would not make such an
admission if it were true that the tor
pedo boat had successfully run the
gantlet of the ships fire and placed II
torpedo against her bottom.
"Who knows anything about itPn
he replied. "Who can tell that the
torpedo boat would not have been
pierced a dozen times by our Hotchkiss
and machine guns? We get up sort
bf dress rehearsal of real battle. On
one side is the fleet of nearly dozen
ships, supposed to be blockading this
harbor, in which two of our smallest
and least effective ships represent an
enemy's force. The latter are protect
ted by shore batteries, by fixed tor
pedoes, and by torpedo craft. The two
ships in harbor, aided by the torpedo
boats, try to break the blockade without
warning about 2 o clock A. NJ. There
is a grand roar of artillery and machine
guys, our electric search lights sweep
Dsn6 surface of the water, and whenever
we catch glimpse of any one of the
hostile craft we open fire; il the UNI
pires think that we have discovered the
korpedo boats in time to sink them they
are ordered out of action, but if sudden
ly red signal light flares up close
alongside from a torpedo boat that we
have not seen before, that is claim on
her part that she has successfully stolen
upon us and fixed torpedo to us.
Pdr6leu! if red signals were torpedo
explosions there would now be ten fine
ron-clads at the bottom of the gulf"
"Then you admit that your ship and
other ships were reached by the tor
pedo boatsP'
mo, indeed; / admit nothing, and
regard these sham battles as proving
nothing, because the conditions of act
ual combat necessarily can not be had.
We agree to certain rules which shall
govern the attack and the defense. and
that is absurd when you remember
that ANS fair in war; For instance.
It is agreed that if torpilleur is dis
covered and fired upon by the ship at a
distance of 100 meters 1928 feeD, the
torpileur shall be regarded as sunk or,
at any rate, disabled; but who can tell
that single shot would have hit her?
Even assuming that she was hit, would
\ not the Lieutenant in command use per-
laps the last expiring engine throb to
get her alongside big enemy and ex-
plode the whole craft as a torpedo,
rather than let the blockader escaped
On the other hand, Is it fair to deprive
the vessels of the blockading fleet of
the protection that they would have in
real WARP We have nets and search
lights and guns, it is true; but no tor
pedo boats of our own and no counter
mines. Besides, we are restricted to a
certain part of the channel and have
other arbitrary rules to govern the
sham fight such as would never be
thought of in war"
"Then you regard sham fights as